Brits prefer eat outs

Britain's culinary awakening from a land of Bernie Inns and Harvesters to a nation of gastropub-goers saw families spend more money on eating out than on food to cook at home for the first time ever, official figures showed yesterday.

As the UK races to catch up with the US, where the preponderance of cheap fast-food restaurants has long dictated people's eating habits, British mothers are increasingly hanging up their aprons in favour of a night off. Rising disposable incomes, and more working mums and single-parent families have sounded the death knell for evening meals consumed at the kitchen table over the past decade.

Thanks to the gastronomic revolution, the hotels, catering and pubs industry was the sixth fastest growing industry between 1992 and 2004, the survey showed. Household spending on all food sector products was £173.3bn in 2004, up by almost three-quarters since 1992. Over the period, spending on catering products consumed outside the home grew by 102.2 per cent.